Surly Brewing is now seeking a $500,000 loan from Hennepin County to support the $20 million, 60,000-square-foot destination brewery it is proposing near the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Surly seeks more public funds for proposed brewery

Surly Brewing is considering the former site of a potato processing plant at 3171 Fifth St. SE in Minneapolis as the site of its new destination brewery. (STAFF PHOTO: BILL KLOTZ)

Surly Brewing is now seeking a $500,000 loan from Hennepin County to support the $20 million, 60,000-square-foot destination brewery it is proposing near the University of Minnesota’s TCF Bank Stadium in Minneapolis.

Brooklyn Center-based Surly has been engaged in “due diligence and feasibility analysis” for months when it comes to its favored site, a 7.46-acre demolished potato processing plant location at 3171 Fifth St. SE.

A $500,000 Transit Oriented Development loan from the county “will help that feasibility,” said Tom Hauschild, a partner at the Minneapolis-based TEGRA Group that is advising Surly and owner Omar Ansari on the project.

Surly previously received nearly $2 million of the $2.5 million in environmental cleanup grants it was seeking from the state, the county and the Metropolitan Council.

The Minneapolis City Council’s Community Development Committee was scheduled to hold a Tuesday hearing on a resolution supporting the proposed Surly loan and other transit oriented development loan requests.

Hennepin County staff plan to recommend loans to the Hennepin County Housing and Redevelopment Authority in mid-May, said Patricia Fitzgerald, principal planning analyst with the county.

The new brewery would be Surly’s second. Its existing 24,000-square-foot facility is at 4811 Dusharme Drive in Brooklyn Center.

For years, Ansari has wanted to build a new location to meet the demands of an enthusiastic “Surly Nation” of customers. Ansari has wanted a “destination brewery” including a restaurant.

Surly officials are considering whether to purchase what they call the “Malcolm Midway” site from Minnetonka-based Michael Foods’ Northern Star subsidiary.

They not only have to consider environmental cleanup costs but also the need to tear up foundations and install pylons to support new structures above the former dump and swamp, said Ann Calvert at the Minneapolis Community Planning and Economic Development department.

“There’s an understructure you don’t see that needs to be removed. It’s a complicated site,” said Calvert, who added that it also is “great” because of the location.

Architect Dick Gilyard, who is part of the Prospect Park East River Road Improvement Association, is confident the brewery project will be built there.

“We believe that it’s the type of thing that the Central Corridor is built for,” said Gilyard, referring to the $957million light rail line between Minneapolis and St. Paul that is under construction. The proposed site for Surly is within walking distance of the Central Corridor’s Prospect Park Station near 29th Avenue and Fourth Street SE.

The site is part of a much larger, mostly former industrial area east of TCF Bank Stadium, where developers for years have pitched ideas for science parks, housing and other projects meant to take advantage of proximity to the university.